CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is a divisional of commonly assigned, co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/168,871, filed Nov. 13, 2002, entitled “Method And Apparatus For Mapping Sources And Uses Of Consumer Funds,” which is a national phase of International Patent Application No. PCT/US00/33750, filed Dec. 13, 2000, entitled “Method And Apparatus For Mapping Sources And Uses Of Consumer Funds,” which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/173,691, filed Dec. 29, 1999, entitled “Debt Repayment Acceleration System.”
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to plans for repaying mortgage loans and other installment debts on accelerated schedules, and more particularly to computer-implemented systems that organize, forward, and report the application of many individual consumer payments to their corresponding lenders and creditors with the objective of saving money over a standard installment repayment history.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, the unpaid principle of a mortgage or other type of loan is what earns interest for a lender at the agreed rate. Each monthly mortgage installment payment is usually applied first against the interest earned, and then any balance goes towards reducing the outstanding unpaid principle. The actual amount that goes towards reducing the principle can be relatively small, e.g., 10% of the payment. So it makes sense that if the borrower can make the payments a little more frequent than once a month or include more than the basic monthly payment, the principle will be reduced faster and the interest earned will be correspondingly reduced. For example, biweekly payments of half the monthly mortgage amount will result in 26-biweekly payments being made in a year. So paying biweekly results in one extra whole month's payment being accumulated each year. That alone could reduce the term of a 30-year mortgage by a couple of years and several thousand dollars being saved over the standard monthly payment schedule.
Commerce has always depended on the flow of value, i.e., companies and individuals paying what they owe and collecting what they've earned. The conduit for the flow of value is the payments system which has progressed from barter, to coins, to paper currencies, to checks, and lately to electronic payments. In decades past, cash and checks were the preferred payment calculators for consumers and businesses. Today, businesses, government agencies, and consumers feel the burden of paper overload as more than sixty-three billion checks are processed every year. Each check must be written or printed, signed and mailed, and then retrieved, reconciled, and stored. With increasing incidents of check fraud and a strong emphasis on privacy, traditional check-issuers are demanding more secure and confidential alternatives provided by electronic payments.
Direct deposit is the automatic deposit of all or part of employees' pay, retirees' pension and annuities, and other business deposits to consumers' checking and/or savings accounts. Instead of printing checks, the employer or benefactor (originator) supplies a computer file containing a record for each participating employee/retiree/consumer to the businesses financial institution (the ODFI). The ODFI assures correct formatting and transmits the file to the automatic clearing house (ACH) operator for delivery to the employees'/retirees'/consumers' (receivers') depository accounts at their financial institutions (RDFI's).
In the case of direct deposit of payroll, the employer provides the employee on payday information regarding gross pay, payroll deductions, tax withholding, net pay, and other appropriate details. Similarly, businesses supply other appropriate data to pensioners, annuitants, and consumers regarding the credits to their depository accounts. Direct payment and home banking/bill payment services save consumers time and money by eliminating checks, check handling, and postage. With direct payment, consumers preauthorize electronic debits to their depository accounts for types of recurring bill payments such as insurance premiums, utility bills, all types of loan payments, mortgages, club memberships, subscriptions, and charitable contributions. To initiate direct payment, consumers must provide a written authorization to their participating billing companies, clubs, charities, etc. Authorizations may be cancelled at the discretion of the consumer according to the procedures outlined in the authorization. Cancellation of direct payment has no effect on the consumers' financial obligation to the billing company. With appropriate authorization, the billing company originates a computer file containing payment information. The company's financial institution transmits the debit through the ACH-network to the consumer's depository account.
When consumers choose to participate in conventional home banking/bill payment services, they can initiate their bill payments by telephone, computer, or other calculators. The consumer's service provider initiates ACH debits from the consumer's bank account and ACH credits to the consumers billing account for the authorized payment. Home banking/bill payment services are offered by various financial institutions and other private service providers throughout the United States.
Direct payment and home banking services provide benefits to both companies and consumers. Companies reduce expenses associated with check processing and improve cash flows by reducing delinquencies and late billing procedures. Consumers reduce check and postage costs and save the time of manually preparing and mailing checks. In addition, consumers can reduce late fees, forget about payment deadlines, and make their account reconciliation process simpler. Consumers never relinquish control of their accounts. Direct payments and home banking/bill payment services may be terminated or modified at any time according to procedures outlined in the authorization agreement.
Electronic commerce can incorporate all aspects of the ordering, inventory, and payments processes of businesses. Companies may use electronic data interchange (EDI) to place orders; to update, control, and reorder inventories; to transmit billing statements; and to collect or make payments. The ACH-network is an efficient electronic payment alternative to checks and wire transfers to complement electronic commerce. Electronic business payments may be ACH debits or ACH credits depending on the needs of and the agreements among trading partners. The ACH-network provides an electronic payments calculators for financial EDI, Internet payments, corporate trading partner exchanges, corporate cash management, and other business-to-business transactions such as transmission of insurance and healthcare information and payments.
Financial EDI is the electronic movement of payments and payment-related information in standard formats through the banking system. Businesses of all sizes; state, local, and federal government agencies, and financial institutions are incorporating financial EDI into their payments practices to minimize the flow of paper, to reduce administrative costs, and to improve efficiencies. Businesses use the ACH-network to pay or to collect from corporate trading partners. The transaction sets of the ACH-network provide varying levels of payment transfers from the simplest to the most complex, including invoice numbers, discount, adjustment, and other remittance information.
In the 1990s, the Internet is becoming an increasingly important tool for business-to-business communications. Companies use the Internet to place orders, update inventories, and authorize payments. The ACH-network provides an efficient payments calculator to settle transactions initiated on the Internet.
Good corporate cash management techniques allow businesses to accelerate cash in-flows, manage account balances to reduce borrowing needs, improve earnings potential of operating capital, and precisely control cash disbursem*nts. The ACH-network allows companies to move money between branches or offices quickly and reliably based on operating needs. Companies with geographically dispersed offices can use the ACH-network to draw funds into centralized accounts from widely-scattered financial institutions. Similarly, funds can be disbursed to remote operations as needed. The ACH-network is an efficient calculator to shift balances to and from centralized concentration accounts to effectively administer corporate operations.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention includes a bill-paying system with a customer deposit account that receives periodic payroll deposits of an individual or a couple (“Subscriber”). A bill-paying service enrolls the individual or couple for a fee, and is authorized to transfer money from the deposit account to the accounts of various creditors. An originating depository financial institution, such as a bank, actually handles all the transfers of money, and such transfers are preferably all done electronically. The automated clearing house (ACH) network supports such electronic money transfers. The various bills and debts of the individual or couple come due at times that are asynchronous to their income structure. The bill-paying service is authorized to debit the deposit account for more than the basic minimums due all the creditors each month. Such excess is used to accelerate the repayment of various loans and debts according to what particular application at that time will have the greatest long-term beneficial effect.
Among the features of the preferred embodiment of the invention are:
1. Each subscriber may be associated with multiple transactions involving the movement of money;
2. A single subscription transaction table is provided which contains all data for moving money;
3. A subscriber can have one physical loan with multiple recurring payment records, i.e., there is a logical grouping of disbursem*nts for a given instrument;
4. A trust finder function provides a join across multiple tables for trust arrangement to map money movement; and
5. A campaign product is provided for managing money based upon product type and destination of funds.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
A debit 107 is periodically made to issue a credit 108 to a payment clearing account 110. An advise 111 is returned to a servicing platform 112. So a back-end mortgage servicing or legacy subsystem is provided for posting payments, segregating and remitting funds, calculating interest, mortgage servicing, car loan type processing, etc. In an early development prototype system, the servicing platform 112 was provided by Computer Power, Inc., now a part of Alcatel. A communications link 113 allows a service provider 114 to direct the back-end mortgage servicing or legacy subsystem. Another communications channel 115 allows the service provider 114 to direct the front-end money-gathering subsystem. The servicing platform 112 was initially provided with mortgage servicing software, but it was discovered that this could be greatly expanded to service more than just the mortgages of a consumer. Many or all of the installment accounts could be simultaneously managed for many hundreds of customers. It is also possible for billers to present bills for the customer to pay that are delivered to the service provider 114, e.g., bills that require payment within ten days The custody account 106 would then be used by the servicing platform 112 to pay such “pay-on-demand” bills when previously authorized.
The subscriber 204 can benefit by paying more than the minimums due on each account and by paying a monthly installment account in part on a weekly or biweekly basis. They will benefit by a more rapid decrease in the unpaid principle and therefore save on the interest charges that accrue on that unpaid principle each month. At the same time, it is imperative that there always be enough money on hand to pay each bill by its due date. So any acceleration of payments cannot leave the system 200 short of funds to pay any bill that normally comes due later in the month. The payment service provider 210 must therefore be instructed which creditors are to be paid, the terms of the loans involved, the income structure of the subscriber 204, and the total amounts authorized to be withdrawn at various times of the week, month, and year from DDA 202.
The movement of money in system 200 preferably uses the automated clearing house (ACH) network in the United States which is a central clearing facility that provides distribution and settlement of electronic financial transactions. ACH operators clear debits and credits electronically, rather than through the physical movement of checks. There are four ACH operators in the United States, the Federal Reserve System, Visanet ACH, new York ACH, and American ACH. The Federal Reserve System alone clears about eighty percent of all ACH transactions. Such ACH-network was formed in the early 1970's to provide an efficient alternative using electronic and telecommunications technology to replace paper check processing. The ACH system uses batch-processing, store and forward operations. ACH payments are not processed individually. Originating depository financial institutions (ODFI's) submit ACH payment files to the ACH operators. The ACH operators accumulate these files, sort them by destination, and transmit them to receiving depository financial institutions (RDFI's) for application to customers' accounts at predetermined times throughout the business day. The ACH system provides significant economies of scale compared to individual wire transfers, and is faster and more accurate than paper-check processing.
The ACH-network is a nationwide wholesale electronic payment and collection system now used by hundreds of thousands businesses and financial institutions.
Technological advances implemented by the ACH operators allow transactions to arrive at their destinations in a matter of hours. Entries are settled quickly, most often within one business day of origination. The ACH-network delivers electronic payments quickly, safely, reliably, and conveniently to financial institutions for their customers.
The ACH-network is not used only for consumer transactions such as direct deposit and direct payment, nor only for business-to-business transactions known as financial EDI. The ACH-network is also the settlement calculator for home-banking payments, credit card clearings, electronic benefit transfers (EBT), point-of-sale (POS) and Internet purchases, electronic check transmissions, and even automated teller machine (ATM) transactions. The ACH system provides the basic infrastructure for a wide variety of electronic payment applications.
The national automated clearing house association (NACHA) is a nonprofit banking trade association that promulgates the rules and operating guidelines for electronic payments, such as direct deposit, direct payment (preauthorized debits), financial EDI, electronic benefits transfers, third-party bill payments, electronic checks, and Internet payments. NACHA represents thirty-five regional ACH associations which have a total of more than 13,000 financial institution members. NACHA provides educational payments conferences, as well as marketing collateral and technical publications. NACHA can be accessed through the Internet at www.nacha.org.
An “ACH originator” is a company or other business entity that creates entries for introduction into the ACH-network. For example, an employer produces credit entries to pay employees who have authorized direct deposit. A utility or other billing company produces debit entries from customers' financial institution accounts who have authorized direct payment for products and services. A business produces financial EDI transactions to pay or collect trading partner obligations. ACH receivers are consumers, customers, employees, and other businesses who have authorized electronic payments by direct deposit, direct payment, or financial EDI to be applied against their depository accounts. An originating depository financial institution (ODFI) typically initiates and warrants electronic payments through the ACH-network on behalf of its customers. A receiving depository financial institution (RDFI) provides depository account services to consumers, employees, and businesses and accepts electronic payments to those accounts. The ACH-network transfers payments and related data through computer and high-speed communications technology, e.g., the Internet. ACH-network services can be divided into five broad categories, (1) direct deposit services, (2) direct payment and home banking services, (3) electronic commerce, (4) electronic benefits transfers, and (5) electronic checking.
Returning now to
A number of earmarked custodial accounts 224 are credited with money debited from the settlement account 214 in the name of the client sponsor 206, e.g., at the request of the service provider 210 using ACH-format PPD. Such money is collected to pay an FNMA, GNMA, FHA, etc., mortgage loan, car loan, credit card debt, or other. Thus system 200 is based on an asynchronous debiting based on the subscriber's payroll cycles and crediting based on the due dates of various obligations. Prior art systems are simply driven to debit and credit solely on the due dates of the obligations.
Funds are then periodically withdrawn from the custodial accounts 224, in one case, to a check disbursem*nt settlement account 226 so that a series of paper checks 228 can be issued. In another case, funds are periodically withdrawn from the custodial accounts 224 to an EFT disbursem*nt settlement account 230. The service provider 210 instigates both these kinds of transfers with PPD instructions in ACH-format. After all the required payments are made, a curtailment can be calculated. Any surplus funds in the custodial accounts 224 will trigger a collection of unpaid service fees (USF). This results in a transfer of USF from custodial accounts 224 to the service fees account 216 by PPD in ACH-format. A corporate trade exchange (CTX) ACH-format is used to transfer finds from the EFT disbursem*nt settlement account 230 to a sponsor payment clearing account 232. This is handled by an EDI process initiated by the service provider 210. Such CTX transfer can include BPR and ADX segments, for example. Payments are then ultimately transferred to a sponsor servicing system 234 from the sponsor payment clearing account 232. A standard lockbox layout format is used that is triggered by the receipt of the CTX transactions.
A typical transaction flow between the sponsor 206 and the service provider 210 includes a solicitation tape from the sponsor, new additions from the service provider, refresh records from the sponsor, account status changes from the service provider, and account status changes from the sponsor. Sponsor-generated transactions can also include investor sales/transfers, service releases, payoffs/paid-in-fulls, foreclosures, bankruptcies, payment changes, and delinquent payment information. Conversely, service-provider generated transactions can also include updated first payment dates, suspended accounts, terminated accounts, custodial account balances, next and last withdrawal information, reactivated accounts, and letter-writer queue records.
In general, embodiments of the present invention comprise a bill-paying system with a customer deposit account that receives periodic payroll deposits of an individual or a couple. A bill-paying service enrolls the individual or couple for a fee, and is authorized to transfer money from the deposit account to the accounts of various creditors. An originating depository financial institution, such as a bank, actually handles all the transfers of money, and such transfers are preferably all done electronically. The ACH-network supports such electronic money transfers. The various bills and debts of the individual or couple come due at times that are asynchronous to their income structure. The bill-paying service is authorized to debit the deposit account for more than the basic minimums due all the creditors each month. Such excess is used to accelerate the repayment of various loans and debts according to what particular application at that time will have the greatest long-term beneficial effect.
The ACH-network is based on a series of agreements-between the company and its financial institutions, between trading partners, between the employer and its employees/retirees, between the billing company and its customers, among financial institutions, and between the financial institution and its customers. The basis for these agreements is the ACH rules: a complete guide to the rules and regulations governing the ACH-network. These rules and operating guidelines are developed and promulgated by the national automated clearing house association (NACHA). Rules and conventions for specific applications such as cross-border payments, financial EDI, electronic benefits transfers (EBT), electronic check, and consumer-initiated bill payments are developed by NACHA's councils: the cross-border council, the bankers EDI council, the EBT council, the electronic check council, the bill payment council, and the Internet council.
In order to participate in electronic payments, businesses must enter into agreements with the originating financial institutions of their choice and with the receivers of the transactions, e.g., employees, retirees, consumers, or other businesses. These agreements define the rights and responsibilities of each party to the transaction. The agreement between the business and the financial institution also establishes the method and procedures by which the payments are processed and settled.
The authorization by the receiver generally includes provision of a financial institution name and routing number and the appropriate account number for the transactions. According to a preapproved schedule, the business submits computer files usually in the ACH standard format to its ODFI for processing. ACH software for personal computers, local area networks, and mainframe computers is readily available in the marketplace. Even the smallest companies can take advantage of the efficiencies of the ACH payments system. In addition, many service bureaus and financial institutions provide a variety of conversion and computer services to assist businesses. This book-electronic payments review and buyers' guide-contains listings and contact for the providers of ACH products and services.
There are currently four ACH payment formats available to meet company and business needs for timely disbursem*nts and collections. These are cash concentration or disbursem*nt (CCD), cash concentration or disbursem*nt plus addenda (CCD+), corporate trade exchange (CTX), and the soon-to-be obsolete corporate trade payments (CTP). Addenda records allow the CCD+, CTP and CTX formats to both electronically transmit payments and payment-related information in standard formats between financial institutions.
The CCD payment format is the only corporate format that is not accompanied by addenda records. However, a reference number is placed in the entry detail record so that the payment and remittance advice can be reconciled by the seller (receiver).
The CCD+ format is the same as the CCD format with the addition of one addenda record. Part of the addenda record contains a payment-related information field in which data segments as defined by ASCII x12 or NACHA-endorsed banking conventions are used. This addenda record allows the transmission of limited remittance information related to the payment.
The CTX format allows a company or business to electronically transmit one payment to cover multiple invoices and associated remittance information. The CTX format allows up to 9,999 addenda records. For CTX entries, the addenda are linked together with each succeeding addenda record carrying the next 80 characters of the message. The complete ASCII x12 820 or 835 transaction set is “enveloped” within the CTX addenda records.
Continuing with the conversation of
1. Each subscriber may be associated with multiple transactions involving the movement of money;
2. A single subscription transaction table is provided which contains all data for moving money;
3. A subscriber can have one physical loan with multiple recurring payment records, i.e., there is a logical grouping of disbursem*nts for a given instrument;
4. A trust finder function provides a join across multiple tables for trust arrangements to map money movements; and
5. A campaign product is provided for managing money based upon product type and destination of funds.
The foregoing features of the invention provide flexibility to allow movement of money independently along each leg of the money path, i.e., the “W” of
As shown on
As further mentioned above, a one-to-many subscriber arrangement is provided by the invention. Thus, all money transactions for a subscriber are maintained in a single file.
The invention also provides a plurality of account policies 36 for a subscription, each of which may have a plurality of disbursem*nt schedules 37. This aspect of the invention provides a logical grouping of disbursem*nts for a given instrument which stores and organizes data more efficiently.
The invention also provides a trust finder function 38 which, in the preferred embodiment of the invention, includes tables for a sponsor 39, product 40, payee 41, and investor 42. The trust finder provides a join across the four tables which defines the trust arrangement in such a way to map money movements. Thus, additional attributes may be provided to define the money movement process. Such definition is crested by the join across the four tables.
The invention also provides a campaign product feature by which a campaign 33 may be offered to a plurality of subscriptions. Each campaign, in turn, may comprise a plurality of products 32. This arrangement allows the management of money based on product type where money is being remitted. Thus, a product may be sold among multiple campaigns.
A test 513 checks to see if the transaction's queue type is “EFT DSB.” If so, a step 514 divides the set of transactions having the same RCVG transit routing number, RCVG account number and NACHA transaction code into groups of five hundred transactions or less. A test 515 checks if all such groups of five hundred or less transactions have been processed. A step 516 and 517 creates a NACHA detail record in CTX format. A test 518 checks if all the transactions in a group have been processed. Each transaction included in the NACHA detail record is used in a step 519 to create a set of NACHA CTX addenda records formatted by the payee's EDI element records. If the answer in test 513 is no, then a step 520 creates a NACHA detail record in PPL format. A step 521 updates the status of each subscription transaction or trust arrangement prenote in a queue 522 to “cleared” or “pending”. (Pending status only applies to prenote and receipt transactions.)
When all of the records associated with a subscription pass validation, e.g., tests 614, 615, 618, and 619, control passes to process 700 through a connector 620. If the end-of-file is encountered in test 606, a step 621 updates the task file 603. Process 600 then ends at an exit 622. If any of the records associated with a subscription fail validation, e.g., tests 614, 615, 618, and 619, control passes to step 623 that logs the error in a task-error file 624.
Each unpaid service fee passes through a step 913. A test 914 looks for an end-of-file. If not the EOF, a test 915 sees if there are any unpaid service fees associated with the subscription that have an amount that is less than or equal to the disbursem*nt schedule curtailment amount and the process determines that it can pay the fee. If unpaid service fees can now be paid, a step 916 creates transaction records to withdrawn such service fees from the subscriber holding account. A step 917 creates the transaction records that are associated with the deposit of the service fee amount into the service fee account. A step 918 moves the unpaid service fee record in a file 919 to the paid service fee table and changes the status to “paid” in a file 920. The service fee amount is removed from the subscriber current balance, pending curtailment amount, and pending use amount.
If the EOF is reached in test 914, a test 921 checks to see if the curtailment can be disbursed. If so, a step 922 removes the service fee amount from the disbursem*nt schedule's pending curtailment amount. In a step 923, if there are any unpaid service fees associated with the subscription that have an amount that is less than or equal to the disbursem*nt schedule curtailment amount, and the process determines that the only thing stopping the payment of the unpaid service fee is the pending receipts, the disbursem*nt is delayed until the next cycle. A step 924 logs any errors in a file 925.
Embodiments of the present invention further include an allocate curtailment program, a calculate-next-cycle dates program, a create-transaction program, an estimate-interest program, a get-schedule-status program, and a log-SX-change program. A next-cycle-dates calculation tests to see if the disbursem*nt schedule is being delayed one business day. If so, the disbursem*nt_schedule.next_ini-tiate_date is incremented by one business day and is verified by a calendar table. The disbursem*nt_schedule.next_transaction_date is incremented by one business day. And if the disbursem*nt_schedule.next_id-eal_date is older than five days, the process logs an error into a task-error table. Otherwise the process cycles the receipt or disbursem*nt schedule according to the schedule's cycle type.
For the last cycle calculation, if all of the disbursem*nt schedules associated with the subscription are closed except for the disbursem*nt schedule that is currently being processed, and the disbursem*nt schedule that is currently being processed will not cycle again prior to its end date, the projected disbursem*nt schedule's next initiate date, then the subscription is on its last cycle.
For the fee payment calculation, if the unpaid service fee amount is less than or equal to the disbursem*nt schedule's pending curtailment amount, the unpaid service fee can be paid if the payment of the unpaid service fee would not decrease the subscriber current balance below the subscriber minimum balance allowed, while also subtracting the subscriber pending receipt amount. Or if the payment of the unpaid service fee would not decrease the subscriber current balance below the subscriber minimum balance allowed, but requires the use of the subscriber pending receipt amount, the unpaid service fee can be paid, if the disbursem*nt schedule was delayed until the pending receipt amount cleared. Otherwise, the unpaid service fee cannot be paid.
For the curtailment payment calculation, if the disbursem*nt schedule is capable of curtailing money and its curtailment amount is greater than its minimum, the curtailment amount can be included in the disbursem*nt if the payment of the curtailment amount does not decrease the subscriber current balance below the subscriber minimum balance allowed, while also subtracting the subscriber pending receipt amount. Or if the payment of the curtailment amount does not decrease the subscriber current balance below the subscriber minimum balance allowed, but requires the use of the subscriber pending receipt amount, the curtailment amount could be included in the disbursem*nt, if the disbursem*nt schedule was delayed until the pending receipt amount cleared. Otherwise, the curtailment amount cannot be disbursed.
For the create service event, if the sponsor associated with the subscription requires the creation of an initial enrollment service event at the time of the first disbursem*nt and the current disbursem*nt schedule is the subscriber primary disbursem*nt schedule and it is on its first cycle, and if the subscription has enrollment fees that are unpaid, the process produces an “enpart” service event. Otherwise, the process produces an “enfull” service event. If the subscriber primary disbursem*nt schedule is being processed, the process creates a “dsbfamt” service event. Otherwise, the process creates a “dsbsamt” service event. If an enrollment service fee was paid during the processing of the current disbursem*nt schedule, the process creates an “endfrd” service event.
An allocate-curtailment program assigns portions of a specified subscriber calculated future minimum balance to each of the associated disbursem*nt schedules that are active and have been configured to receive curtailment. The calculate next-cycle-dates calculates cycle dates given the transaction type, cycle type code, clearing delay, last ideal date and special parameters for semi-monthly loans. The create-transaction program creates the necessary transactions for subscription activity, including subscription transactions, subscription bank account business month and bank account business month records. The estimate interest program estimates interest that has not been allocated in the past for a specified subscription. The process stores the estimated amounts in the appropriate subscriber bank account bus month (“sbabm”) tables and loans the total estimated interest amount to the subscription from the service fee account. The subscriber-valid-business—months are all months that fall between the subscriber start date and the subscriber closed date, or the current date, whichever is earliest. The get schedule status program is used to determine the status of a single receipt or disbursem*nt schedule. The program returns “active”, inactive”, “post active” or “suspend” as the current status, based on the values of the request, start date, end date, next cycle ideal date and suspend days. The log SX change creates an SX record for a specified disbursem*nt schedule if the payee requires notification.
Although the invention is described herein with reference to the preferred embodiment, one skilled in the art will readily appreciate that other applications may be substituted for those set forth herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the invention should only be limited by the claims included below.